In one corner, Sarah Palin, the "bone-licker, shit-kicker, caribou-killer." In the other, the gentle friend of animals, Jonathan Safran Foer. According to Macy Halford at the NYer blog, this fight'd be no contest.

"That’s always been part of my goal — to show the dark side of women. Men write about bad men all the time, and they’re called antiheroes. ... What I read and what I go to the movies for is not to find a best friend, not to find inspirations, not necessarily for a hero’s journey. It’s to be involved with characters that are maybe incredibly different from me, that may be incredibly bad but that feel authentic." Gillian Flynn and Cheryl Strayedtalk with The New York Times about the adaptations for Gone Girl, Wild, and writing credible characters. Their conversation pairs well with our own Edan Lepucki's essay on likability in fiction.